Friday, 9 October 2015

I can't believe it's almost the middle of October. How did that happen? I have totally neglected this little blog. I've been taking tons of pictures, but I just don't have the energy to do anything with them! Props to all the teacher-mom bloggers out there. I did not realize how exhausting this double life would be. I am loving being back at school, even though I miss seeing my little Zoe Monkey all day long. I know she is having fun at daycare and I love my little class of firsties. Here's a peek at what we've been up to this week... I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party!

Monday afternoon we went on our first field trip to the local fire station. They were so excited and had a great time! The fire fighters did an excellent safety presentation and then we got to tour the fire station. We got to sit in a fire truck AND squirt water from the hose! How fun! We also did some work in our interactive journals about fire safety. I think we have drilled those safety rules into their heads after this week!!

It was all about fall, Thanksgiving, and some Halloween this week. I pulled out all my fall books and the kiddos just ate them up. We made fall patterns using some fall/Halloween foam shapes. We made counting by 10s turkeys and had our school-wide Thanksgiving lunch where we sported our turkey hats (idea from Miss Kindergarten).

Guided Reading and Math are in full swing and so far it's going pretty good! My kiddos love play-do, so whipped up this fun word work centre. There is a mat for each letter. They have to make the uppercase and lowercase letters and then there is a picture that corresponds to the sound the letter makes (a - make apples, b - make bees). I just put them on TpT tonight {here}.

Whipping out my fun tools to start reading off on the right foot. Witch fingers and laser pointers have been a big hit so far!

In writing we are writing personal narratives about a time we got hurt. These are our "ouch" stories. We will make our good copies look like a large band-aid!

I have been doing problem solving at least 3 times a week. So far we have only been doing addition and subtraction to 10 (result unknown), but learning a bunch of strategies such as draw a picture, use tally marks, use a number line, use a ten frame, and act it out! I hope to do a blog post soon about problem solving and the different types of problems we will be doing. We do some whole group practice on whiteboards and then do an individual problem in our journal.

Here's a few examples of our journals. Right now they just have to show work (picture, tallies, etc.) and a number sentence. Soon they will also have to write their answer with a number and word (ex. 9 acorns).

Science is in full swing. We have been doing a bunch of work on the four seasons and will be starting some SUPER FUN weather activities after the long weekend. We started off with our question chart... what do we wonder about weather or seasons? We're going to touch on these questions as we continue our learning this month.

And here are some kids enjoying the Explore Tubs (early finisher activities for Science). These girls are dressing up the boy for different weather!

These kids are learning about light and shadows AND are telling very creative stories! :)

These adorable girls are playing teacher while they match up the seasonal activities. Find this activity on TpT {here}.

You can read more about my Season & Weather Explore Tubs {here}. The only thing I did differently was put all of the topic books into a big tub (kind of as it's own tub) and just put the activities into the tubs. They have been a huge hit! :)

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